She added that gators are common in the area and have been known to come “right up to your front door."

"Thirty years later, I still respect the fact they could eat me for lunch," she said. "I’m terrified of them."

Jay Butfiloski, alligator program coordinator with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, told ABCNews4 his hypothesis for the odd coloring on the gator.

“I suspect it’s related to where it’s hanging out for the winter," he said. “[It] might be iron oxide [rust] that has discolored it. It may be using a rusty steel culvert pipe — I would bet there is one nearby. I’ve seen similar pictures before.”

“[It's] highly unlikely it is genetic," he said. “Could be rusty pipe, but most likely it is iron oxide precipitating on its skin. This happens when you have water with high iron content and low pH occurs and it is precipitated onto something it can adhere too. I routinely see this on ducks feathers from our coastal waterfowl areas.”

Hanahan is near Moncks Corner, South Carolina, where in May, a gator strolled up to someone’s home and looked as if it were trying to ring the doorbell.